Istanbul or the cohabitation of Europe with Asia

Since today Turkey celebrated the Republic Day and I have not yet finalized the story of the recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia (but stay tuned :p) I thought of talking tonight a bit about Istanbul (Turkey) or the biggest city in the world spread on two continents - Europe and Asia.

Yeni Mosque

How does my story with Istanbul begins?  Well, like every story it begins with planning for New Year's Eve in 2010 and having no idea were to go.  Finally me and my friends decided that it is time to try something more out of the ordinary European vacations but not to go to much over the edge.  The evident choice was Istanbul, a combination between the edge of Europe and the edge of Asia and add on top that it was supposed to be warmer than the usual European Christmas/New Year location such as Prague, Budapest, Vienna or Amsterdam.

So there we were, four ladies storming to new horizons on 28 December 2010 after a miraculous taxi trip with a Romanian cab driver that for sure forgot to drink his coffee.

Lucky us the flight from Bucharest to Istanbul is a short one and in 2 hours we were there.  I am not going to annoy you with tales about touristic objectives and details about our 6 days in Istanbul.  Instead, I am going to share with you some impressions about this city which hopefully will get you excited and make you want to put on your trip list the city about which Atatürk used to say that "On the meeting point of two worlds, the ornament of Turkish homeland, the treasure of Turkish history, the city cherished by the Turkish nation, İstanbul, has its place in the hearts of all citizens."

At a first glance Istanbul seems, feels and looks like a huge city.  Forget about the tram, the metro, the ferry, the cabs, the train...there's nothing quiet enough to cover it all. For an European, used to gray flats and orthodox or catholic churches and women who express themselves in far to many words and far to few clothes, Istanbul stroke me with its mosques and very conservative women.  You can find a bit of everything once you get here but you should definitely not miss the following:

Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque (by its real name Sultan Ahmed Mosque) was built from 1609 to 1616 and is still popularly used as a mosque.  More than 20,000 Isnik ceramic tiles, huge colorful prayer carpets, the mihrab, many lamps that were once covered with gold and gems, the colored glass of the windows...all impressive and all an introduction to the Muslim faith. 

Tips - Pay attention to the prayer hours when the Blue Mosque is closed to visitors; recommend you to go in the morning. Make sure you are properly dressed and, if you are a woman, you have something to cover you hair with.  Also, be prepared to take off your shoes.

 

Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox church, later an imperial mosque and now a museum.  Its interior is decorated with mosaics and marble pillars.  Apart from the mosaics a large number of figures can be found such as an image of Christ in the central dome, Orthodox saints, prophets, scenes from the gospel, Islamic elements on the main dome...

 

Mosques are all over Istanbul.  You will notice most of them by their towers (called minarets) and you will "hear" tem when the imams will call people to prayer for the five daily prayers.  Do not miss the Suleymaniye Mosque (my favorite because of the interior light and openness and the well known masterpiece of the architect Sinan), Yeni Mosqu (or the New Mosque for the blue mosaic), Iskele Camii (mosque on the Asian side with heated floors), Semsi Pasa Camii (small and beautiful and one of the last works of Sinan).

 

Basilica Cistern and the Grand Bazaar

Enter the Basilica Cistern to see the old drinkable water system of the city.  The cistern is an underground chamber capable of holding 80,000 cubic meters of water.

Go on Yerebaten Cadessi, walk for 10 minutes and on your right you will find a little restaurant called FishHouse.  They make the most amazing fried shrimps with butter covered in sweet pepper.  Ask for the hot "halva" with ice cream as desert and you will not regret it.

  

Walk on Divanyolu Cadessi to get used to the crowd and the shops as you go towards the Grand Bazaar.  When you enter the Grand Bazaar be prepared for a place where you can buy anything at any price.  No price list, no strings attached, no rules.
 

Negotiation is the rule and is a cultural thing so it's a must to do it.  Here you will be surrounded by gold, sliver, precious stones, smoking pipes, glass, porcelain, lighting appliances, Turkish delights, sellers who are there to sell you just about anything.  Check out the paintings on the walls if you are an art lover, the streets with gold sellers if you like jewelry and start negotiation for a scarf.

Dolmabahçe Palace

Dolmabahçe Palace was ordered by the Empire's 31st Sultan, Abdulmecid I, and built between the years 1843 and 1856. The design of the palace is a combination between the European styles (Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical) and the Ottoman architecture.

Topkapi Palace

The palace was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years.  The palace had its own water supply, kitchens, dorms, gardens. libraries, schools, even mosques.  The imperial harem contained more than 400 rooms for the sultan's mother, the concubines, the wives of the sultans, their children and servants.

Tips - take an audio guide at least and you will get a better insight of the Topkapi Palace and it's history.

 Eminonu Port

Forget about museums; instead walk the streets near Eminonu Port and go to the spice market.  Enter the trains station at Eminonu.  It's new and modern but it used to be the last station on the tour of the Orient Express.  If you pay attention to details you can still see the old structure of the train station and imagine the passengers of the Orient Express with their fancy clothes just sipping a coffee in the train station coffee place.

Galata Bridge, Galata Towe and Taksim

Take the tram over Galata Bridge and get down in Takism Square.  Walk on Istiklal Street for shopping.  Shopping malls are to far away and just don't worth the hassle.  Here you can find also clubs and bars for chilling.  Ada Café (which is a restaurant and a bookshop) has a great New Year's Party.  Forget about Coffee House, is to crowded and to European.  Choose instead one of the side streets from Istiklal Street and find a small local restaurant were you can drink Turkish coffee and savor a baklava.

In the night take the elevator in the Galata Tower; the view on top is amazing.  Stop for a while at the coffee place at the last level to enjoy a Turkish coffee with biscuits and watch over the Old City of Istanbul.

Asian side

Take a trip to the Asian side.  Ferries leave from Eminonu Port regularly.  The trip is no more than 20 minutes.  When you get to Uskudar visit the three mosques on the shore.  You will notice that people in the Asian side are more conservative and rather curious with tourists than in the European side.

 

Once all of the above done...

 ...enjoy a nice traditional food in one of the restaurants where you notice a woman in the window making bread (some sort of pancakes). You can find two of this restaurants on Hudavendigar Cadessi which is in Sultanahmet (great neighborhood for finding your hotel)

Tips - make sure you try the lamb kebab and the local red wine. Ask for starters (zacusca and yogurt with cucumber).

  

....take a cruise on the Bosphorus...

Tips - choose the one that is around 2 hours is enough to give you a great view both of the European and the Asian side and a glace at Marmara Sea and in the same time spear you of seasick.

 ...buy souvenirs, they are cheaper than in other places. For architecture fans search for a book of Sinan on Istiklal street and enjoy the mosques. Over 400 works are attributed to Sinan. For movie fans, make sure you buy DVDs in one of the DVD/Bookshops - they have a good price and you can find the Audio in English.

...for cooking fanatics do not miss the spice bazar and make sure you take home sweet pepper, sumac, mint and saffron.

...for music lovers book a night in one of the restaurants with traditional dances and Turkish belly dance.

 Teşekkür ederim (which means Thank you) for reading!

Beautiful Romania - Costinesti

Well travelers this post it's not about a typical holiday, it's not about planes, boats, trains, routes or museums.  This is a post about an extended weekend chilling at the Romanian Black Sea in Costinesti.

If you are looking to spend some fun days swimming, sun tanning, playing beach games and partying all night long and if you are the type of traveler that likes better comfortable shoes and not so sophisticated clothes while on holiday as opposed to high heels and fancy dresses than Costinesti is the place to be.

 

The beach positively surprised us; clean, perfect sand, lifeguards at every corner, enough space to sun tan, play football, volleyball and other beach games, with radio platforms bringing together bars for drinks, live DJ and live music, foam parties and beach competition.

For those of you looking for adrenaline there are plenty of water sports and also some "steady ground" activities like testing the flying fox or jumping with ropes or no ropes.

The food is for all tastes and pockets.  You can test the food at the corner of the street like small fried fish ("hamsii"), the traditional Turkish food, pizza, shaorma, Mexicanos (or for those of you that have visited Spain - churros), ice cream, etc. or you can try the self service restaurants with very tasty traditional Romanian food or even high class restaurants serving traditional and international Romanian food.  Our personal favorite are the self service restaurant called "Closca cu Puii de aur" - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Autoservirea-Closca-cu-puii-de-aur/295697233900818?fref=ts and Maxx - an open air club just besides the Obelisc perfect for coffee and cocktail just about at any hour of the day.

If you are looking for parties Costinesti has a lot to offer from foam parties, thematic parties, to concerts all night long the clubs at the seaside are trying as much as possible to make the tourists happy and keep them entrained.  Our favorite is Mega Discoteca Tineretului, an open space club with great music, concerts every night and the best dancers we've seen by now - https://www.facebook.com/discotecatineretului?fref=ts

Photo credits - Radio ZU

If you are the type in search for more calm activities you can choose evening entertainment shows or open air cinema or you can even consider spending the time watching the sea at night and the candles inside air balloons lighted up and sent up in the air.

In terms of accommodation you can choose staying with one of the locals; it's cheap, close to the beach and has all you need in terms of services and who knows maybe you even end up making some new friends.

All in all we loved the experience; Costinesti is truly the pace to chill and relax in a crowd, how we like to say it.

Santorini or as close as it gets to heaven ...

When planning the trip to Greece one of my friends told me that the phrase that best describes Greece is “belle view” because when you travel around this amazing country you just have to turn around and you will be for sure surrounded by a view that will still your heart away…well I have to admit that Greece was exactly like this with a cherry on top…

Sunset in Oia...

Our “to do list” in Greece included Santorini.  Frankly speaking I had no idea what we were supposed to visit or see or do.  All I knew about this island was that it took its name from Saint Irina (as given by the Venetians in the thirteen century), that it was somehow related to a volcano and that it should have some blue and white churches that seemed to appear on all the dreamy wallpapers. 

Santorini (Thira) is a Greek island part of the Ciclades.  A small island (96 km long) with around 11,500 inhabitants, Santorini is annually the home away from home for around half million visitors.  How can such a small island fit so many tourists and so many dreams that it’s still a mystery to discover.

 

We arrived to Santorini by boat from Crete in a more than sunny August day.  First contact with the island started with jumping on a bus that was supposed to take us to our hotel and with the smallest van we have ever seen packed up with young tourists on their away to a local hostel.

 

In order to understand my first impression of Santorini I have to tell you that I am the type of traveler that likes busy trips with lots of sightseeing and jumping between planes, trains, buses and squeezing in as much as interesting places to see as possible.

Imagine my surprise when I got off the bus in Perissa and turned around and so nothing else than a few hidden houses, arid land, sand and green just enough not to be in the dessert.  What to do for six days stuck on an island?  The best thing to do while in Santorini is to give up all the sightseeing plans, chill out, lay down and experience the Greek island way of leaving life.

 

People

Like all Greeks, Santorini people are warm, polite and most than happy to welcome you in their hotels, restaurants or clubs.  What I mostly remember about them is that they seem to have their own timetable, they do things slowly, no rush, no fuss, nothing to worry about and nowhere to go where you can be late.  Santorini people have certainly upgraded the meaning of “dolce far niente” to a superior level.

Beaches

From red to black to white the beaches in Santorini are to die for.  Perivolos welcomed us with dark colored sand and the most transparent and clean water we have ever laid foot in.   

 

 

The red volcano beach invited us to lie down on red sand and bathe in the Mediterranean sea with a view to the red rocks in front.  

 

The white beach, reachable only by boat form Akrotiri or swimming from the red beach gave us the chance to experience getting down straight from the boat in the crystal clear waters and sun tanning amongst white rocks. 

 

 Transportation

There are many ways you can move around in Santorini from renting a car, a motorbike, taking the local bus or jumping in a taxi all is affordable and reliable.  If you are the bus type forget about timetables and be patient, hours and minutes are there just an indication and you might have to wait 10-20 minutes longer.  Except for this the bus ride was the perfect way for us to get to know the island.

Food

Greek food is all you can dream of.  Light, tasteful, diverse.  You can try anything from sea food, fish, grilled cheese (haloumi), Tzatziki to Souvlaki and moussaka.

 

Our favorite food was all types of sea food we could find and the best moussaka ever tasted.  In terms  of drinks you can try wine, local beer or ouzo.

  

Ouzo is an anise-flavored aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece and Cyprus. Is traditionally mixed with and served with ice cubes in a small glass. Ouzo can also be drunk straight from a shot glass.

 

Parties

If you are planning to go party in Santorini than you should try Kamari and Fira.  Fira has an amazing nightlife.  You can jump from one club to the other, dance on the bar, drink ouzo shots and chilling cocktails.  The crowd is as good as it can get and the music is a combination of Greek and international music.

Must do!

-  watch a sunset in Oia/Ia; everybody gathers on the roads near the sea to enjoy together the sunset and there is so much silence in the rumor all around and there is so much emotion when seeing the sun laying down in the Mediterranean sea that you just fell you grabbed happiness by its feet and you just can’t let go;

-  walk around the small streets of Ia and enjoy the white houses, the traditional churches and small shops and restaurants welcoming you at every corner;

  

 

-           

 - try the huge pancakes in Fira; 

-    have dinner in the many restaurants facing the sea;

-       swim, swim, swim;

-      take a boat ride to the white beach with nothing else but a swimsuit and jump from the boat for a swim in a crystal clear water;

 -        go party in Fira, let go of all inhibitions and just let yourself go wild;

 -          propose to your girlfriend in the perfect place to propose marriage;

 
 

How would we describe the Santorini experience in just one phrase? Well Santorini is truly as close as it gets to heaven on earth :p